R3 is launching a new division called R3 Labs with a bold mission to bring the next $1 trillion of real world assets on chain.
The unit will accelerate tokenization on Solana starting with $17 billion already tokenized across R3's platform.
Joining me live to talk about the future of on chain finance is David E.
Rutter, founder and CEO of R3.
David, welcome.
Great to have you back on the show.
Thank you, Rey.
It's great to see you again.
Well, first and foremost, I do want to ask you about R3 Labs.
So tell us about the vision.
So the vision is really clear, as you stated, we are very focused on how we're going to get the next $1 trillion of real world assets onto the Solana ecosystem.
And we have a very clear plan.
You know, the 1st $1 trillion or so will be the most difficult, but as you know, in the real world assets and traditional finance, there are trillions of dollars of yield bearing instruments and all that we're interested in exposing to the D5 community and many of our viewers are familiar with tokenization.
So why now?
So it's been quite a journey.
We started 10 years ago, I think you know we're backed by the largest banks in the world.
Over 40 global banks are our shareholders, and we started with a mission really improving the financial services by leveraging blockchain, but not on the crypto side of things because public permission this ecosystem was undeveloped, but it's grown up and the time is now and you're not going to find a.
Or a financial institution in the world that's not excited about the opportunities to broaden their customer base and reach out to the DI ecosystem we're seeing with Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, and others that are already tokenizing their assets.
Yeah, and David, you mentioned timing and the last time we spoke we were at the Salonna Accelerate conference here in New York City and that was before the Genius Act has passed, right?
So now that we're here, we're looking ahead to the rest of 2025.
Give us an idea of some of the conversations that you're having with stakeholders and what do you expect to see here stateside.
Well, it's the momentum has shifted to the states.
Obviously the Genius Act helps, but there's a lot of other regulatory clarity that's beginning to develop.
So we're very focused on building out our business here, and you mentioned Solana accelerate.
You know what the energy was like there?
The Solana ecosystem has a ton of momentum.
For all the right reasons, you know, it's a very reliable system.
The transaction fees are quite reasonable.
The throughput is very significant, so we think it's the perfect ecosystem for our customers that have very high demands.
Yeah, and you mentioned Sallano.
So for people who may not be as familiar, tell us what advantages that salon actually brings to the table here.
Well, I'll tell you what, one of the things that people don't talk about enough, which I think is very significant, if you look at the Ethereum ecosystem.
It's it's a very interesting ecosystem with a lot of financial players that have committed money to it, but it's very fragmented.
There's lots of layer twos and side chains.
So how do you pick one?
So long is a single system if you Hook up to the Salana ecosystem, which you have to because it's so vibrant and so large.
All all programs and assets and stablecoins are available to you immediately.
That was a big part of our decision, but as I briefly mentioned.
Throughput is a very significant part of it.
They can deliver a finality of transactions in milliseconds, so in a blink of an eye, that's very important to our customers and it's a very reliable system with reasonable transaction fees.
So we're very confident it's the right solution for real world assets going forward.
And David, we are approaching the opening bell, so we will be back with you.
In just a few seconds here at the New York Stock Exchange ringing the opening bell on this Tuesday morning is Ralph Lauren Corporation, founded in 1967 and headquartered here in New York City.
The company operates in 5 main categories including apparel, footwear, and accessories, home products, fragrances, and hospitality.
Take a look as Patrice Lovett, president and CEO, rings the bell.
Take a look.
Well, we are back with David of R3, and it just speaks to how Trapy and DeFI are converging, especially since we're both here at the New York Stock Exchange and we're just witnessing the opening of the equity markets, but we're just talking about salon.
Blockchain.
So I want to know how does that work with R3's compliance and what advantages does that bring?
Well, Solana ecosystem brings the advantages of distribution to millions of wallet holders to participate in that ecosystem every day.
You know, quota is our product is really founded on making sure that privacy is protected, and we've come up through our three labs with a really unique way to give our most demanding customers a lot of options as it pertains to how they want to handle their privacy requirements while still getting access to the entire Solana ecosystem.
So we think we've found a sweet spot and we're super excited about the future.
And finally, David, before I let you go, what does this mean for actual regulated financial institutions as well as on chain investors?
Well, on chain investors are going to have a plethora of new product opportunities from commodities to energy and different types of yield bearing instruments.
Right now it's pretty much limited to treasuries, but you're going to see other corporate bonds, other types of credit coming online, maybe try to trade finance receivables, which I'm interested in.
So that's that's what they have to look forward to.
For traditional finance, they have a whole new ecosystem of potential clients that they can deal with directly.
They can build interesting products to meet their demands, and also they can dramatically lower their costs by taking advantages of the tokenization. of these products and since we're sitting here, I'm really excited to see where tokenized equities go, which is clearly a hot topic globally.
David, great having you here at the New York Stock Exchange, and we are counting down to your end, so hopefully we have you back before the end of 2022.
I would love that, Ray.
Thank you very much.
